Computer keeps cool iun small package
An
Inova Computers product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Dec 15, 2005
Hercules industrial computer from Inova Computers comes in a small format yet can survive without fans or other forced-air cooling.
The Hercules industrial computer from Inova Computers comes in a small format yet can survive without fans or other forced-air cooling.
Originally designed for rigorous transportation applications, this seven-slot, 3U CompactPCI system can maintain system integrity in hardware and software to prevent unexpected failures.
It has an aluminum heatsink that conducts heat away from a high-frequency CPU to the chassis walls, where it is dissipated through a set of cooling fins.
This thermal management scheme prevents hot spots inside the chassis which can undermine operational stability and MTBF.
Running Windows XP Embedded, Hercules comes with a CPU board with either a 1GHz ULV Celeron M or 1.4GHz Pentium M.
It has an intelligent, two-slot PSU board providing 3.3V at 4A, 5.1V at 6A and 12 V at 0.25A and four vacant backplane slots for adding a choice of CompactPCI I/O and controller boards for such functions as digital video, global positioning, wireless LAN and removable hard disk drive.
The CPU board contains a Phoenix bios and SiS chipset, along with 256Mbyte (upgradeable) of compact flash and a set of I/O, including a USB 2.0 port, Fast or Gigabit Ethernet port, analogue video accelerator for screens with up to a 2048 x 1536-pixel format, and three 24V optoisolated digital I/O lines.
The PSU board contains a dedicated microcontroller that functions as a system watchdog manager, using five watchdogs to monitor voltage, temperature and other parameters.
If the system contains an optional hard disk drive, the controller also keeps an eye on the health of that device.
A board support package contains utilities to monitor the operating parameters of the system and maintain reliability.
This can be tuned to requirements.
To prevent corruption of core software, the Windows operating system and drivers are loaded into a write-protected area in flash memory when Hercules boots up.
About 75Mbyte of flash remains, providing headroom for storing application code.
The system is thus safe from viruses that may be contracted from various sources, eliminating the need for an external firewall.
All boards and interface connections are accessible from the front of the computer.
Front-panel I/O avoids the cable clutter of systems with rear-panel I/O.
Operating temperature is -20 to +50C with -40 to +85C optional.
It is comfortable with noncondensing humidity up to 95% at 40C.
The system is screened against EMI emission and immune to EMI from external sources.
The shock and vibration specifications exceed EN50155.
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